All of those album sales on the charts are pretty pathetic.

I think with just a little more promo, Jon could have ranked much higher.

It's going to be interesting to see what happens in May with their next release. JBJ needs a makeover too. It's time for Jon to look like Jon again. I think his new image hurts him... Or lets just say that it doesn't help.

If anything that chart positions are too high for what the album was intended to be. Just so happens to be a fairly quiet week for albums.

There was a little promo, I saw a TV advert and there was the odd bit of airplay on the usual stations but the physical CD was barely stocked in the shops. If the first week sales for the next album are that low, then you could worry, but it outsold all but 2 albums this week in the UK whilst being pretty much off everyone's radar. Jon would rather everyone ignore this album and concentrate on the next one anyway.

The number sold is the absolute die hards. The however many thousands it sold. A show like Wembley, that's casual fans, that's moderate fans and that's ALSO hardcore fans. It's such a blanket statement to say that because a cd came out under the radar that only the hardcore fans knew about sold what it did they can never play the stadium again.

There's months of interviews, a music video, lots of radio interviews, some cross promotions, posters, tv appearances, I could go on and on. This album had very very very little of that. So no. It's not the same as a regular release's promotion cycle. Sales are going to be lower. The label is not going to pay to promote it for a billion reasons. Not to mention the amount the albums sell have had less and less to do with the draw they get live, especially the last ten years. Their market has shifted to nostalgic but they're still playing the new songs to appear relevant and I think they generally like them.

This apple tastes funny, I may never buy another orange.

Why buy a digital release when at the same price (or even less) you can have a CD (and if you buy in Amazon you can have the digital release at the moment you bought it)? Still, people buy digital releases.

What you said is an argument that Taylor Swift likes a lot but that it's not true as the only thing that Steaming has done is literally erasing piracy in some countries and, because of that, having some extra earnings to the industry.

The thing is that the one that isn't going to buy a CD in the first place, won't buy it, doesn't matter if they have Spotify or not. Chances are, that if Spotify doesn't existed, they will download it from The Pirate Bay or, like in the old times, just buy a pirated CD or copy it from a friend.

Truth is, there're a lot of bands that I knew thanks to Spotify. Because of their radio feature. And then I bought the records, or even went to see them live, and bought merchandising. If Spotify didn't existed I might have never:

1. Knew the band.
2. If I knew it from somewhere, never legally streamed (giving some earings) and maybe just pirated the records.

Labels say that streaming services don't give a lot of money to the artists, but that's likely to happen when they get a 60% cut of every stream. That's what artists get when you have a useless parasite in the middle.

Also, I find it really funny when people say "Spotify is killing the music industry". Few years ago they had an all-history record earning (that might happen every year but I really didn't googled anymore). That means they earned more money that year than any previous year in the story of the music industry. If you're having record earnings, how are you getting "killed"? They are not getting killed. The music industry's future isn't at stake. They just want to see a way to earn even more money. They just make a basic logic that's "no spotify = more buys", when that's not entirely true because "no spotify" might equal a lot of things.

And, to finish, we could start debating if big labels are needed these days. Specially in the not-pop music scenario. I have my doubts. But that's another subject for another thead.

Billboard 200

Bon Jovi (1984) --- #43
7800º Fahrenheit (1985) --- #37
SWW (1986) --- #1
NJ (1988) --- #1
Keep The Faith (1992) --- #5
Crossroad (1994) --- #8
These Days (1995) --- #9
Crush (2000) --- #9
OWN (2001) --- #20
Bounce (2002) --- #2
TLFR (2003) --- #14
100 Millions.... (2004) --- #53
HAND (2005) --- #2
Lost Highway (2007) --- #1
The Circle (2009) --- #1
GH (2010) --- #5
WAN (2013) --- #1
Burning Bridges (2015) --- #13

Aloha !

This discussion seems to be started be you, but you seem to think that the music charts are a good indication as to what's popular nowadays. They aren't. It's streaming services like Spotify and YouTube hits that indicate as to whether a song is popular.

Besides that, demographics have changed, and target audiences as well. A 16 year old kid will listen to music on Spotify or YouTube, while a 40 year old Bon Jovi fan will probably still buy the physical copy. It's why you need services like Spotify nowadays. And even though those people might never actually buy the album, they are the people that will have to buy a ticket for the show.

The entire industry has changed. The selling point is changing from record company's making money on music, to record company's making money on live shows. Spotify isn't the reason why new listeners aren't buying the album. Bon Jovi have an audience that's 25-50 years old (Sure there's exceptions), and then create music targeted at 16 years old, only to sell tickets to 40 year olds with ticket prices only the 60 years old can afford, really. That'll never work, and that's why they're losing fans, and why stadiums are half full nowadays. The younger audience just can't afford the live shows anymore.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Agreeing with this - I've only recently subscribed to spotify (originally for kids stories and music to play offline while camping) and am discovering artists I love and didn't know about sooner. Or artists I've heard of and thought 'I know, I'll check them out on spotify'.


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#25 in Sweden

This album's promotion was next to zero. Dont' expect it to chart properly! And I would imagine Jon will have a laugh if the sales ar miserable, simply because it will piss off the label.